Goodbye to an Old Friend Read Online Free PDF Page B

elegant breakfast room. ‘There are observation points, of course.’
    Adrian hesitated, momentarily, feeling himself blush. He decided to maintain the honesty and said, ‘Of course.’
    He paused, then added, ‘It’s a protection device, for your safety …’
    Pavel’s ridicule cut him off.
    â€˜Hah! That was a mistake,’ snorted Pavel. ‘So far you’ve been honest with me and I’ve recognized it. But that was stupid. I came to England in the dead of night, by helicopter from the Continent. So no one in the world knows exactly where I am except the people you choose to know. It’s not my safety you’re worried about at the moment.’
    Adrian decided he had to jar the other man’s confidence.
    â€˜For a man who has abandoned his family and his country and knowingly become a traitor, you’re remarkably unconcerned,’ he said. That question would cause more than frowns. There would be complaints now.
    Pavel looked at him, solidly, measuring his reply.
    â€˜Are people usually nervous then?’
    Adrian refused to let the initiative get away from him.
    â€˜Aren’t you?’ he retorted.
    Pavel smiled. ‘Yes – very,’ he admitted. There was a pause, and then he added, ‘And I’m very conscious of what I’ve done to my family.’
    â€˜Then why have you come over?’ Adrian maintained the aggression, anxious to establish supremacy.
    Again Pavel took time to reply and spoke haltingly, uttering the thoughts as they came to him. ‘I thought my work was more important to me than anything else … even before Alexandre defected from the congress in Helsinki. I was getting more and more frustrated at the restrictions that were being imposed upon me … I’d even thought of trying to get away, not knowing Alexandre was thinking the same way …’
    The Russian smiled, suddenly. ‘Alexandre never indicated a thing,’ he said. ‘I had no idea what he was planning. Me! – He wouldn’t even trust me.’
    He sounded hurt.
    â€˜I know,’ said Adrian.
    Pavel took up the explanation again. ‘With Alexandre gone, our programme was broken. I could have got another colleague, certainly, but it would have taken too long – years – to get to the level at which Alexandre and I were working.’
    â€˜Why did the Russians let you go to the air show, so soon after Bennovitch’s defection?’
    Adrian spaced his question, the most important he had to put initially to the scientist.
    Pavel shrugged, accepting the emphasis that the Englishman placed upon it, but dismissing it. ‘But whyever shouldn’t they?’ he said, rhetorically. ‘As far as the authorities are concerned, my return was guaranteed … my wife and daughter in Moscow … my son at Alma Ata. They thought they had enough hostages to let me take up my exit visa …’
    â€˜But they were wrong?’
    Pavel didn’t reply. Adrian was quite relaxed now, analysing everything the Russian said.
    â€˜You spoke in a strange tense a little while ago,’ continued Adrian. ‘You said you thought your work was more important than your family, as if you’d changed your mind now. Have you?’
    Pavel humped his shoulders in uncertainty. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘It’s just that … that I don’t have the feeling I expected to have. I keep thinking of Valentina … of the girl … of what will happen to them …’
    He trailed off, swallowing. Adrian let him recover, knowing the Russian would sense the gesture and appreciate it, perhaps become less hostile.
    â€˜See.’
    Pavel took a large wallet from inside his jacket, the size making it difficult to get from his pocket.
    â€˜My children,’ identified the scientist, proudly.
    Adrian examined the boy in soldier’s uniform and the girl in her stiff graduation